Stuart

I win this thread.

THE BEST.

Merry Crib-mas/Crib-mas Eve. AH AH AH AY YAH YUH. ALSO:

Not anymore! Be sure to get the latest Steamworks update. http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=652

I accidentally posted this thread before finishing it, so the opening post isn't as good as I intended it to be and I may have forgotten albums and songs I wanted to talk about. Oh well!

Fuck.

Important track, amazing track.

Looks pretty good!

YES. ALSO, I CAN'T FIND ANY SCREENINGS AT CHICAGO, WHY YOU GOTTA LIE TO ME, PTA.

Oh of course, I was just using that as a quick example. This is a art/media problem that goes back for centuries in narratives. cannot deny that.

My favorite off of one of this year's best albums (or at least, rap albums). Also, Gangsta Boo's verse on this one (SUPER EXPLICIT SEXUAL LYRICS ON THIS ONE):

Sean has the rap game down.

Whoever that guy was, he has some whack raps.

I don't like Ryckert, he's representative of what is holding back video game criticism and journalism behind. I thank him for at least introducing that Mario Party thing. I always root for him to lose. Also, his dad is a fucking gross sexist and transphobic asshole. But whatever, lol he doesn't like video games, old man dad, haha? :U

Been wanting to voice my thoughts on Far Cry 4 for a while, and all the talk about on the pod has motivated me to do it. A main concern I have with the game is how despite featuring a PoC (Person of Color) character and featuring issues surrounding PoC, it's still codified in the very gross narrative framing and politics Far Cry 3 presented explicitly, which in FC4 it's presented more insidiously due to the setting change. Also, note that I said "featuring issues", which is also a humongous problem AAA games have and FC4 specially has, but I'll get into that a bit later. On the subject of Pagan Min, his demeanor, mannerisms, and even way of dress bring to mind the same sort of blatantly flamboyant, pseudo-queer codifying presented in Disney villains. It uses these queer stereotypes to add to the multitude of reasons why to hate this guy. "He looks tacky" could easily be to someone more ignorant the equivalent of "He looks like such a ponce." Here's the post on this kind of insidious codifying present within Disney villains that explains it concisely. http://fandomsandfeminism.tumblr.com/post/73592250014/could-you-talk-more-about-the-male-disney-villains Another big problem is that every mission is codified within Western colonial feedback. Biggest example: The fact that you don't "take over" or "fight against" an outpost of PoC villains. No, you LIBERATE the outpost. You don't just kill an animal and take it's meat, you get a nice + 1 UI notice whenever you do it. The game is all about giving you feedback as a sort of pat in the back for the gross shit you do. This kind of framing is present all around in Far Cry 3, and in Far Cry 4, it's featured in a more covered up manner, and it bugs me people are giving it a pass because of how it wells it covers that up. And now that I'm on feedback, that's another big problem I have with the game. How despite how intricate and interesting its systems are, its designed to always pat the player in the back, and that's such an Ubisoft open world design garbage thing, that it's become so tired and boring to me. I cannot relish this random experience I just had when I get a fucking UI or cinematic, telling how fucking awesome this thing I just did. It's a game that is open to how manufactured and calculate it is, and robs players of the experience of, as Sean would say, to suspending their disbelief. Finally, on this "featuring issues" thing, or rather "featuring X social issue/theme" thing so popular in AAA. To put it bluntly, it is nearly always obnoxiously ham-fisted, vapid social commentary and exploration of themes in something that in the end, isn't concerned with commenting, but serving you on things. An exemplar commercial, capitalist-as-fuck video game. It uses theme and issues not as things to explore, but as "content" to be consumed along with it's lavish systems. And you don't even have to play it to see this. All of this is presented in the forefront of all of that game's marketing. They take pride in saying and doing absolutely nothing, intent to feeding us the same bullshit. See: Bioshock Infinite as a perfect example of a game that does that and ends up shooting itself on the foot. Also, Far Cry 3. But yeah, that's all I had to say on Far Cry 4. That felt cathartic. SHORT VERSION, COURTESY OF @BooDooPerson: http://boodoo.biz/Fuck%20Far%20Cry%204 EDIT: I MEAN FAR CRY 4 AT THE START. Also, some more elaboration on some stuff.

Nothing cuter than a hardcore rapper playing around with kitties!

Whoah there, which Riddick are we talking about here? Also, as messy and convoluted Dune was, it had vision, despite its flaws, it is still Lynch at the top of his game. Interstellar felt restrained with its trite emotional bullshit and pseudo-philosophy. John Carter and the Star Wars prequels are bad, I'd put Interstellar up there with both of them. I haven't seen Titan A.E. Also, while I'm here, I'll link this scene from Jodorowsky's Dune.

My thoughts exactly. I had a convo on Twitter with a friend where we discussed how Nolan's directing and writing style doesn't fit well with big, high concept films like Interstellar. He is, like most people have pointed out, the anti-Spielberg, a man focused too much on giving as much narrative details (aka, exposition, blegh) than showing us that amazing beautifully rendered vista that his CGI team worked on for months. I put it this way: Take note on how long all those sweeping, majestic shots of space are. Under a smarter big film director (like Spielberg, who was attached to this film beforehand and it SHOWS), those shots would be longer, portrayed in all their grandeur and majesty. Using, ya know, visuals to tell a story in a medium all about visuals, but Nolan doesn't care about that, when he films, shots are there to serve his stupid overbearing plot. He should seriously return to making smaller, focused films like Memento and The Prestige where he can wax philosophical and use his directing style to far better use than in a film that begs for more grand visuals than grand monologues. The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar are getting the critical jabbing they deserve, let's hope its a wake up call for Nolan. Because right now, Interstellar is probably the worst space opera I've ever seen.

It plays a lot better on PC, specially the whole leaning mechanic which is a classic PC stealth game mechanic that doesn't translate that well on consoles controllers, imo.

It's about time.

Swery65's complex diatribe of global capitalism.

i wanted to type this somewhere other than twitter idk if its because there is an gross inherent part of me that wants people to feel bad for me or some shit or i just cant stop thinking about this shit right now. sorry if this shit is too much of a downer so i'll just keep this quick. trigger warning for suicide and depression last Wednesday i tried to take my life, and fortunately, my mom convinced me out of it and i didn't feel safe with myself that day, and i decided to go to the hospital to take mental health treatment where i stayed for 5 or so days i think (time has gotten somewhat foggy). i co-habitated with other patients who had schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, all trying to find some. my main goal was sleep, as i hadn't had a good sleep in the past 6 years, specially in the past 2 weeks (literally slept 6 hours two weeks ago and hadn't slept for 24 hours the day i almost committed suicide). thankfully, i got sleep, long needed sleep and help and rehabilitation, as well as prescriptions for pills that helped me go through those days in the hospital. one of the biggest worries i had was school, as per usual, and now that this has happened...idk if i can continue in school. i'm already doing terribly academically as last year, and i'm here from reinstated probation, meaning i failed both semesters last year and got expelled but i told the dean of students that i had depression and got reinstated, but ya, doing poorly. not sure if i should work this out still, despite the fact i'll probably most certainly fail, or leave school for the semester to gain back my mental health. I want to do the latter but need more info on how that'll work in my situation as being reinstated and still in probation. would like to hear any suggestions from ya'll older wiser folks but yeah, that's what's happened i guess. thanks to the people who i know from here and twitter who offered good wishes and support today. <3 and if you're in the same spot as me, please, you are seriously not alone. i know any motherfucker out there says that same cliched shit all the time, but goddamn, it is true. you are not alone and you can pull through, trust me.

Gross and saddening, I won't be supporting this guy's work.

May I get the Magicka / Crusader Kings II combo pack, the Psychonauts / Stacking / Costume Quest combo pack, and XCOM: UFO Defense, plz? If you're only giving out only one game, then could I get just XCOM?